With less than 2 weeks to go until the NHL trade deadline (February 27); it was starting to seem like the lead up to the day itself was going to be a bust. That was until late last night and early this morning when reports started to surface that the Columbus Blue Jackets are open to the possibility of trading Rick Nash. Renaud Lavoie of RDS, Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch and Bob McK...

As the NHL Trade Deadline of 3pm on February 27 nears; rumors, rumors and more rumors will be discussed in blogs, on radio, on television and on twitter. As this deadline approaches, teams will define themselves as buyers or sellers and as a result will start to identify who they want to pursue and who they are willing to part with.
The major difference this year compared to prior years is that...

I believe it was Scotty Bowman who once said something along the lines of “there are 2 kinds of coaches; those that have been fired and those that will be fired.” In today’s NHL, with as much parity as there is, expectations are high in every city to make the playoffs every year. Every game is so important that a bad 5 to 10 game stretch can get a coach fired nowadays.
Yesterday, Bruce Bo...

All the hockey talk today is about Lightning Coach Guy Boucher's 1-3-1 forecheck (or lack thereof?) and how Peter Laviolette, the Head Coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, decided to beat it by doing nothing. You read that correctly – he told his players that if no one forechecks you, don't do anything. This sarcastic and somewhat childish approach has people furious with Guy Boucher for tak...

Earlier this afternoon, Pierre LeBrun of ESPN shed some light on the Kyle Turris holdout in Phoenix. His article confirms that Kyle Turris has requested a trade out of Phoenix, while also confirming GM Don Maloney's stance that his rights will not be dealt. Turris is a former 1st round draft pick and is currently a restricted free agent. If he does not sign a contract by December 1, he will not...

It wasn’t easy, but I’ve done it!
I’m not talking about fasting on Yom Kippur, I’m talking about having watched a minimum of 1 period of every NHL team over the past 5 days. Traditionally, I’ve always preached the same message at the start of a season: give your team 10 games before you start planning a parade or planning a draft lottery party. With that, I caution readers to take thi...

In the NHL’s salary cap era, there is one thing that almost every successful team has in common; and that is having at least a few quality young players that are still on entry-level contracts playing in the NHL. Drafting and cultivating prospects has never been as important as it has been over the last 6 seasons. That trend is not slowing down, and fans will continue to see teams promoting t...

Today marks the deadline for NHL teams to extend qualifying offers to their restricted free agents. Players who have not received an offer by 5pm, will automatically become unrestricted free agents and be free to sign with any other team by July 1. Typically, the players who are not retained are fringe/depth players, but given the salary cap, now money comes into the equation.
Below is a team-b...

It sure seems like the NHL draft is the new trade deadline!
2 blockbuster deals were completed that rocked the hockey world today; one of which was Jeff Carter being dealt to Columbus; while the other seeing top prospect Brayden Schenn and rising star Wayne Simmonds traded from LA to Philadelphia in exchange for Mike Richards. While those are monster deals, the most plugged in hockey insiders a...

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs now finished, the fun stuff really begins! It's the NHL offseason. Players can be bought out until June 30, teams can make trades and have plenty of cap space to do so and free agency opens on July 1. Like almost every other year, team's offseason plans are defined during and after the NHL draft, especially this year in Minnesota.
In what is regarded as a deep draf...

Cap space has become one of the best assets a team can have in the NHL’s Salary Cap Era. One of the easiest ways for a GM to give himself cap flexibility is to use roster spots on rookies that carry entry level deals, and that’s precisely what teams are doing. NHL rosters were loaded with rookies during the 2010-11 season, and the trend is expected to continue in 2011-12.
As fans start to p...

Public enemy number one in the hockey world is no longer Zdeno Chara, as Mike Murphy (NHL VP of Hockey Operations) has become the new most hated person in hockey. Murphy elected not to suspend the Bruins defenseman after reviewing a vicious hit on Max Pacioretty that landed the promising young Montreal Canadiens forward in the hospital. Usually Colin Campbell is the one who imposes supplementar...